rajveer naina - fated

chapter 3

Chapter 3

She was cradling his body in her arms, feeling the warmth leaving it as he slowly turned cold. Sitting there as still as a statue, she could only stroke his hair. Because this wasn't real, it couldn't be.

She was going to wake up and find out all this was just a nightmare.It wasn't supposed to end like this…

Asha woke up with a start, the scream dying on her lips. The dream faded before she could remember it properly, leaving her to rub her forehead and look guiltily in Amiya's direction, knowing that she had woken her friend.

"Bad dream again?" Amiya asks, rolling over to turn on the lamp.Having been Asha's room mate at the academy, she knew about her nightmares. They hadn't happened very often, but when they did, Amiya had always sat up with her, rubbing her back in a calming way until she went back to sleep. Maybe it was because of this that they had become such strong friends, with such unquestioning support between them.

For her part, Asha had always been fiercely protective of her friends. She had once punched a senior in the nose when he got too fresh with Amiya, she would always be there for her friends, no matter what.

"Yes…" Asha admits."Do you remember what it was about?""No," Asha shakes her head slowly, "Somebody had died…. But I don't know who, or how.

It was so real, I felt as if…" She shook her head slowly, trying to clear the acute feeling of loss the nightmare had brought."Go back to sleep." Amiya tells her, "It's okay, it was just a dream.

You need your rest for the morning, it will be our first day on duty.""Of course, just a dream" Asha repeats, trying to convince herself that it was true, but it had felt so incredibly real that… "I'm sorry I woke you up.""It's no problem, gave me a nice reminder of our academy days." Amiya replies, grinning even as she yawns, "Now think of something nice to give you good dreams."But Asha lies there for at least an hour more, trying to remember what it was the nightmare had been about.

Even now it scared her, the immense grief that she had felt before she woke, as if her entire world had ended.After all of these years, why had she suddenly had two nightmares in two days?/

Life in the military base at Tawang was not so different to how life had been at Barrackpore Military Academy.
There was the same rush in the morning for showers, the slightly tired soldiers turning up to breakfast to ravenously devour it while trying to finish as quickly as possible.

Asha and Amiya tried to meet as many of their new colleagues as possible while they were in the mess, discussing where everybody was from, what academy they had attended and whether this was their first posting or not.

The girls were especially happy to discover that two more of their batchmates, Akash and Vijay, had also been posted to Tawang.

"So what do you think we should expect for today?" Amiya asks Asha, "After all, it's our first day officially on duty, are they going to send us patrolling, get us to do some drills or let us take it easy?"

"Well I doubt that they'll be letting us take it easy." Asha tells her, "But I did hear that we're scheduled to meet our superior officers at some point today. I think that after that there'll be a briefing on the surrounding areas and the current situation. I doubt they'll assign us to patrols until we've all been properly orientated."Amiya nods, she agreeing with what Asha was saying.

It would be good to have a couple of days to settle in rather than rush into a situation that they didn't understand.They don't have to wait too long, within ten minutes of breakfast finishing, there is an announcement that the newest arrivals should assemble on the parade ground in fifteen minutes. Asha smiles at Amiya as if to say 'see, thereyou go', and they both head towards the parade ground, figuring that it won't hurt to be early.